Thursday, March 29, 2012

I've mentioned this home in a few previous posts, and I'm so happy to be able to give you a tour today. Our long-time friends (20+ years!) who we have vacationed with, served in church with, celebrated babies with, and laughed with built their dream home. They call their spot "The Wilderness" and it is...as much of one that you can have in Oklahoma! They have carved the perfect spot out of the trees for the house, rearranged ponds, and laid out a beautiful homestead ready for lots of family fun.

This journey began over two years ago-just the building part-they've been planning it for much longer. They have done most of the work themselves and I'm sure they know where every nail, stud, joint, and wire are located.

The Kitchen-includes a fabulous variety of countertops and cabinet finishes

Kitchen Ceiling-Wallpaper painted and faux-finished to look like copper

Kitchen eating and sitting area with incredible cathedral ceiling

One of the views out of the kitchen sitting area window

The plans for the house were very well thought out and included so many features that make great sense! For instance, there is no laundry room, but there is a washer/dryer in the master closet and another upstairs in the kids' space for them to do their own laundry (imagine that!). There's a water fountain in the garage-one of my children's favorite features! There's a crushed ice machine. There's a craft room, full of counter space and cabinet storage with a window to look out of over the desk. There's a table and sitting area for everyone to gather in the kitchen. Plus so many more things, but those are some of my favorites.

Family Room with gorgeous soaring barrel ceiling

My friend is a fantastic decorator and did everything herself. The home is loaded with her personality.

Dining Room with stacked stone wall

Home Office (do you see the turquoise detail on the chair and the cowhide rug?)

Craft Room-the counter wraps around behind the door with more cabinets

My pictures and descriptions don't do it justice. We are so happy for you, friends! Thank you for sharing your incredible home with us (on the blog and in real life!).

Monday, March 26, 2012

Today I want to share a project with you that I made about a year and a half ago before I started blogging. However, I was anticipating maybe starting a blog, so I took pictures of the process just in case.

We have a covered sitting area on our back patio. I searched for months for some kind of chunky iron candelabra to hang, but came up empty. Then, while thrifting, I found this.

I bought some glass votive holders that fit inside and some tea-light candles and used it as-is for a while. But, it looked wimpy. I wanted something bulkier. I had seen some fantastic DIY twig chandeliers in the blogosphere, and I thought it would be extremely fitting to try one, since this was outside and all! I had previously painted it a few different colors, but spray painted the frame brown for this project so the frame would blend in with the twigs.

Then, I hung it and started poking twigs in the middle. The frame had a big open section in the middle which was really helpful. I didn't glue or wire or anything to secure the twigs, just kept stuffing more in until it looked full and they stayed secure by themselves.

The bottom looked a little puny with all of the drama coming out of the top, so I found some honeysuckle vine left over from another project and wrapped it around the base...

and kept adding more sticks and "fluffing"

until I reached the look I wanted!

Don't worry, I did switch over to battery operated tea lights when all the sticks were added in. Wouldn't want to burn the house down, and regular candles were next to impossible to keep lit out there with the fierce Oklahoma wind!

But, here's the real reason I wanted to share this project with you today. A few weeks ago we noticed some visitors flitting around the twigs, and over the weekend we peeked up and found this:

Aren't God's creatures just the masters at DIY? This nest is gorgeous.

The best part is that it's right outside our breakfast window, so we get to watch the Mama and Daddy come and go. Daddy is the lookout while the Mama is on the nest.

The worst part is that we're waiting for that aforementioned fierce Oklahoma wind to kick up...those babies will be swinging from the rafters...literally. Caleb has a plan to keep them still. I'll keep you posted. :)

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Random question of the day: Do you paint ceilings with a flat or satin finish? Our office painting is finished, but I'm not 100% loving the color of the ceiling, and it is an eggshell finish which seems very shiny...maybe because it's a dark color? If I re-do, should I buy flat instead? When we painted the ceilings in the tan color that's in the main part of our house we used satin and it doesn't seem to have as much sheen. So I'm thinking maybe the darker colors look shinier?

Friday, March 23, 2012

I can't believe that Easter is only 2 weeks away! Here's some inspiration to get your wheels turning. Most of these could most likely be adapted using things that you already have, or things you can find in your back yard.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

While thumbing through a magazine the other day, I saw an ad for the Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer and knew the perfect way that I wanted to try it out. Maybe I'm the last person to have ever tried it, but this was new to me.

We have a room designated for an office in our house. It's a nice size and it has evolved into not only an office, but a game room, play room, and music room. After moving into this house almost 5 years ago, I painted the walls red, put in the leopard carpet, and tried to make it a little funky and fun. I still love red and it has served us well, but it's time to freshen up the room a bit.

I went to the website and found the Color Visualizer, and in just a little time was learning how to use the program. I played around just enough to get this one picture for now, but I can see this being a very useful tool. It really helps to have a strong visual of what your room might look like painted in the new colors that you are thinking of.

Before:

And after:

Here's what happened the morning after I played around with the Color Visualizer:

I'm wanting to experiment with a dark ceiling, and this gave me a great idea of what the result might be. The stained bookcases are staying in this room, so I'm going really light with the walls. I couldn't quite get the color as light as I wanted-a creamy white-but I still got a good idea of what the look might be. This room was not even on my re-decorating radar, but it jumped to the head of the line for a minor re-do!

If you're considering a new paint job but are unsure of how the results might look, this is a great tool to play around with. I'm sure you could even upload a photo of a piece of furniture and try out new colors on it as well. Have fun!

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A while back you all shared your thoughts on photo editing options since Picnik is shutting down. I'm happy to report that a new site is up and running...PicMonkey.

I've just played around on it a bit and it's VERY similar to Picnik. I haven't been able to register on in yet but I think they will continue to add more features as time goes on, and it looks very promising and user friendly. Whew! I was getting nervous about what I was going to use when Picnik went away.

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